Adjusting mechanism for perpetual calendars

ABSTRACT

An adjusting mechanism for calendar pens comprises a pen barrel having an interior toothing near its bottom, and two hollow members, being rotatably adapted within said barrel, one of them bearing indications for years and weekdays and the other indications for dates and months, the former having at one end a toothing cooperating with the toothing of the pen barrel and at its opposite end a reversed toothing cooperating with a similar toothing of the second member, said second member having at its opposite end coupling means for cooperation with a rotatably but not displaceable adjusting member, a spring being adapted to press said first and second member against each other and towards the toothing of the pen barrel.

llnited States Patent [191 Swensson ADJUSTING MECHANISM FOR PERPETUALCALENDARS Primary ExaminerRobert W. Michell Assistant Examiner-J. H.Wolff Attorney William C. Linton et a].

[5 7] ABSTRACT An adjusting mechanism for calendar pens comprises a penbarrel having an interior toothing near its bottom, and two hollowmembers, being rotatably adapted within said barrel, one of them bearingindications for years and weekdays and the other indications for datesand months, the former having at one end a toothing cooperating with thetoothing of the pen barrel and at its opposite end a reversed toothingcooperating with a similar toothing of the second member, said secondmember having at its opposite end coupling means for cooperation with arotatably but not displaceable adjusting member, a spring being adaptedto press said first and second member against each other and towards thetoothing of the pen barrel.

2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures 1 ADJUSTING MECHANISM FOR PERPETUALCALENDARS This invention refers to a so called calendar pen, i.e., aperpetual callendar incorporated in a pencil.

The main object of the invention is to provide a calendar pen which isvery easy to set and which may be manufactured in such a size that it ishandy and well suited for writing purposes.

Other objects of the invention will appear from the following detaileddescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in whichFIG. 1 is an exploded view of the ball point retraction mechanism andFIG. 2 is an exploded view of the calendar mechanism while FIG. 3 isplan extension of the interior of member 18 of FIG. 1.

The illustrated calendar pen comprises a tubular pen barrel 1, which ismade from transparent plastic material having opaque portions 2 and 3.Each of said opaque portions has two axially and longitudinally spacedopenings or windows 4a, 4b respectively 5a, 5b. Intermediate said opaqueportions the pen barrel consequently has a transparent portion 6,extending around the whole periphery of the barrel. The pen barrel hasnear its bottom an inner circular toothed portion 7. Rotatably mountedin the pen barrel are two tubular members 8 respectively 9, eachpreferably made from plastic material. The member 8 is at one endprovided with a circular toothed portion 10 for cooperation with theteeth of portion 7. As will be apparent from FIG. 2 these toothedportions will allow the member 8 to be rotated only in ancounter-clockwise direction. At its opposite end the tubular member 8has a toothing 11 the teeth of which are reversed relative to the teethof the toothings 7 and 10. Said tubular member 8 has a first column 12showing the seven weekdays SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY,FRIDAY and SATURDAY, as well as other columns showing in seven rows theyears, whereby the leap years are located at an axial distance from theordinary years.

The second tubular member 9 has at one end a toothing 14 for cooperationwith the toothing ll of member 8. At its opposite end member 9 hascoupling dogs 15 for a purpose to be described. Said member 9 has firstcolumns 16 showing the dates of a month, arranged in seven rows andother columns 17 showing the months. The months which idential inordinary years appear at the same row and the months which are identialin leap years also appear at the same row but they are axially displacedrelative to the months just mentioned. The rows of months are correlatedwith the rows of dates and also the rows of the weekdays are correlatedto the rows of the year to obtain the correct readings.

MRCH NOV FEB SUN JUNE MON SEPT DEC TUE JAN APRIL JULY WED OCT JAN THUMAY FRI FEB AUG SAT By the arrangement according to this table everydate from 1966 to 1999 may be determined by merely displacing the tablessuch that year and month are in line.

The parts just described are referred to as the calendar mechanism.

The retracting mechanism for the ballpoint is illustrated in FIG. 1 andcomprises a hollow member 18 having at one end coupling dogs 19 adaptedto cooperate with the coupling dogs 15 of the second member 9. At itsopposite end it has a reduced diameter 20. The hollow member 18 isrotatably mounted in a bushing 21 which holds the pen clip 22 and has athread 23 by means of which it may be screwed into the pen barrel 1which for this purpose is provided with an internal thread (not shown).The bushing also has a conical flange 24. The portion 20 of the hollowmember projects outside the bushing and secured to said portion by meansof for example glueing is a ring 25, which thereby axially fixed themember 18 relative to the bushing. An inner tubular member 26 has nearone of its ends two small projections 27 being located opposite eachother. Its end portion has cut outs to form for example four triangularteeth 28, adapted to cooperate with correspondingly shaped teeth 29 of asecond inner tubular member 30 which is also provided with twooppositely located ribs 31 having its ends obliquely cut.

The hollow member 18 has internal grooves forming shallow recesses 32and deeper recesses 33 as appears from FIG. 3 which shows the interiorof member 18 extended in a plane. The recesses are limited by obliqueedges and the deeper recesses also have straight portions. A weak spring34 acts upon the second inner tubular member 30 and urges it upwards. Apin 35 having a flange, serving as a support for the end of the ballpoint refill 38 is secured to member 26 but admits member 30 to freelyrotate.

The members 26, 30, 35 are inserted in the hollow member 18 such thatmember 26 projects above the portion 25 of the bushing and secured tosaid upwardly projecting portion is a knob 36. Said knob projects abovea cap 37 having an internal conical portion corresponding to portion 24and being secured to bushing 21 by means of glueing or the like.

The retracting mechanism now described differs from the conventionalmechanisms in two respects, i.e., in that the member 18 is rotatable andforms a part of the calendar mechanism which reduces the manufacturingcosts, and in that the relatively strong spring (not shown) that actsupon the ball point refill to retract it does not act upon the member 30but only upon member 26 via pin 35. Only the weak spring 34, which ishoused in the tubular member 17 and rests against a shoulder thereinacts against member 30 which reduces the wear of the teeth 28, 29thereby giving an improved function of the mechanism.

When assembled the calendar pen just described functions as follows:

To determine when a certain date falls the year is first set by turningknob 36 counter-clockwise. Owing to the fact that the projections 27 ofmember 26 are guided in the straight grooves 33 of member 19 said memberwill rotate with knob 36 and as the coupling dogs 19 of member engagethe dogs 15 of member 9 also this one is rotated. The teeth 11, 14 causethe tubular member 8 to be rotated also. It may be noted that member 8by means of the snapping teeth is arrested in its correct position. Itmay also be pointed out that there must be a small axial space betweenthe bottom of teeth 19 and top of teeth 15.

' When the desired year has appeared in the window 5a or 51) knob 36 isturned in the opposite direction. In this case only member 17 is rotatedwith member 18 as the teeth 7, prevent a clockwise rotation of member 8.The pen is now set and all the dates of the actual month may be readthrough the transparent portion 6 of the pen barrel. To guide themembers 8, 9 and hide the toothing a ring 38', the outer diameter ofwhich being somewhat less than the inner diameter of the pen barrel isadapted over the somewhat reduced portions 11, 14 of members 8, 9. Thepen also has a lower cap 39 which may be unscrewed for replacement ofthe refill.

I claim:

1. Adjusting mechanism for perpetual calendars which are incorporated inwriting implements comprising a barrel and two co-axial tubular membershaving the same diameter and being rotatably arranged within saidbarrel, coaxially therewith, said barrel being provided with at leasttwo aligned but axially spaced rectangular openings and a transparentcentral portion extending all around said barrel and being locatedintermediate the right and the left opening of the barrel taken in itslongitudinal direction, the first of said tubular members havingtoothing at one end and bearing around its periphery in sevenperipherically spaced rows year indications as well as axially spacedtherefrom the week day indications in their consecutive order, thesecond of said tubular members having toothing at one end and positionedaround its periphery in seven peripherically spaced rows monthindications as well as axially spaced therefrom the month dayindications in their consecutive order, arranged in several columns, theopenings of said barrel being so dimensioned and located relative to allsaid indications that the year indications and the month indicationswill appear, with one row at a time, through the mutually alignedopenings while the portions of said tubular members bearing said weekday indications and month day indications respectively are visible inseveral rows through the central, transparent portion of said barrel,wherein said barrel near one end thereof having an inner, annularsawtoothed toothing capable of blocking in one direction, forcooperation with said toothing provided at one end of the first of saidtubular members, said first tubular member at its opposite end has asecond, oppositely blocking, saw-toothed toothing, engaging saidtoothing at the adjacent end of the second of said tubular members, saidsecond tubular member having at its opposite end a coupling means,setting means having coupling means capable of cooperating with saidsecond tubular member coupling means and which is rotatably but notdisplaceably adapted relative to said barrel but which permits a smallaxial movement of said tubular members relative to said setting means,and a spring, coaxial with said tubular members, being provided to presssaid second tubular member axially against the first of said tubularmembers such that the toothing of said second tubular member is held inengagement with said second toothing of the first of said tubularmembers while the first toothing of said first tubular member is held inengagement with the toothing of said barrel such that turning of saidsetting means in one direction brings both tubular members to rotate insaid direction and turning it in the opposite direction brings only thesecond of said tubular members to rotate in said opposite direction, andthe cooperating toothings having seven blocking positions.

2. Adjusting mechanism as claimed in claim I, wherein said setting meansis rotatably arranged in a bushing secured to the barrel, a retractingmechanism for a ball point refill or similar writing instrument havingsaid setting means as a part thereof.

1. Adjusting mechanism for perpetual calendars which are incorporated inwriting implements comprising a barrel and two co-axial tubular membershaving the same diameter and being rotatably arranged within saidbarrel, coaxially therewith, said barrel being provided with at leasttwo aligned but axially spaced rectangular openings and a transparentcentral portion extending all around said barrel and being locatedintermediate the right and the left opening of the barrel taken in itslongitudinal direction, the first of said tubular members havingtoothing at one end and bearing around its periphery in sevenperipherically spaced rows year indications as well as axially spacedtherefrom the week day indications in their consecutive order, thesecond of said tubular members having toothing at one end and positionedaround its periphery in seven peripherically spaced rows monthindications as well as axially spaced therefrom the month dayindications in their consecutive order, arranged in several columns, theopenings of said barrel being so dimensioned and located relative to allsaid indications that the year indications and the month indicationswill appear, with one row at a time, through the mutually alignedopenings while the portions of said tubular members bearing said weekday indications and month day indications respectively are visible inseveral rows through the central, transparent portion of said barrel,wherein said barrel near one end thereof having an inner, annularsaw-toothed toothing capable of blocking in one direction, forcooperation with said toothing provided at one end of the first of saidtubular members, said first tubular member at its opposite end has asecond, oppositely blocking, sawtoothed toothing, engaging said toothingat the adjacent end of the second of said tubular members, said secondtubular member having at its opposite end a coupling means, settingmeans having coupling means capable of cooperating with said secondtubular member coupling means and which is rotatably but notdisplaceably adapted relative to said barrel but which permits a smallaxial movement of said tubular members relative to said setting means,and a spring, coaxial with said tubular members, being provided to presssaid second tubular member axially against the first of said tubularmembers such that the toothing of said second tubular member is held inengagement with said second toothing of the first of said tubularmembers while the first toothing of said first tubular member is held inengagement with the toothing of said barrel such that turning of saidsetting means in one direction brings both tubular members to rotate insaid direction and turning it in the opposite direction brings only thesecond of said tubular members to rotate in said opposite direction, andthe cooperating toothings having seven blocking positions.
 2. Adjustingmechanism as claimed in claim 1, wherein said setting means is rotatablyarranged in a bushing secured to the barrel, a retracting mechanism fora ball point refill or similar writing instrument having said settingmeans as a part thereof.